Friday, February 10, 2017

Abandoned Village Comments

Rating: 5.0

Below me, grey waves break,
As brittle slates scooped up
From cavernous seas
And I the village doomed to wait
...
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Tom Billsborough
COMMENTS
Annette Aitken 11 February 2017

So sad to think trhat this is true Tom, I remember reading something of a loss town for the war, the people had to move out to allow the soliders to train and after the war the people were ment to return to their homes, but instead the MOD still use it to this day for trainning. Annette.

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Tom Billsborough 11 February 2017

I think there was one in Dorset like that. Often new Reservoirs mean the loss of homes too. They are very sad occasions as the people have lost their roots forever. Less serious, but also sad, was the loss of the Cavern Club in Liverpool. It could have been a permanent museum and a fitting tribute to a great bunch of lads, the Beatles and Gerry etc and that gal Cilla too.

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Bharati Nayak 10 February 2017

I am that skeleton stretched out, Exposed to dry, being Of nondescript antiquity. Visitors may come but they are few Who briefly glance at plaques of history And shake their heads as if in sorrow, Reminded of their own tomorrow, Before they picnic by the slated walls. - - - - - - - - - - A poignant write- - -The picture of abandoned village and slate quarry so vivid.- - - The poem so nicely uses this metaphor to describe the old age '

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Tom Billsborough 10 February 2017

Yes, I have my recent bereavement in mind and a memory of a Slate Quarry village. Both personal and general loss. Thanks for your comment, Bharati

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Simone Inez Harriman 10 February 2017

Beautifully penned Tom. It is heartbreaking to see what once was injected with so much life for those that worked so hard to make things work, and all their dreams and ambitions only to be abandoned and reduced to ruins.10

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Tom Billsborough 10 February 2017

Oddly enough some of the houses did not look too ravaged. But, in a way, that emphasised the waste and desolation. Quarrying and mining villages are particularly vulnerable but the one nearest to me (not the one I describe here) was abandoned in the 1930s due to the collapse of the Cotton Industry, due to cheap imports) . They made bobbins. Only the foundations of ten houses remain and the ruins of the Water Mill which provided my power. It is in a very picturesque valley of the River Brock and must have seemed like heaven at the time. My mother and uncles knew the people as it was on their father's estate.

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Tom Billsborough

Tom Billsborough

Preston Lancashire England
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